Heart weak after exercise - Statin-induced cardiomyopathy?

[John of Dalkey]

Cross post from Vytorin forum.

Anyone using Vytorin or another statin experienced weakness in the middle of the chest after exercising hard while on Vytorin (90 days use)?

Exactly like pleasantly tired leg muscles after a daily cycle, but a hand's span over the heart; not so pleasant there. Lasted a day and went away like a cloud that had never been there. Inadvertently repeated the experiment with more exercise, until getting sense, stopping and seeing a Dr. And quitting the statin.

One wonders what are the symptoms of statin-induced cardiomyopathy?

Dr. isn't buying it yet and wants an exercise stress test - "treadmill test." At this point so does this writer, but it would be very nice to hear that CoQ10 might be the answer, versus something far more exciting. ;-)

Suspect Vytorin because of the incredible 60 to 70% reduction in chol, LDL, Trig with Vytorin 10/40 and Ornish / McDougall low fat starch diet in only 4-6 weeks. If it did that to the cholesterol, what the ^&%*& did it do to CoQ10?

[John of Dalkey]

Cross post from Vytorin forum. Fran posted:

Hi John,

Please read these articles by Dr Graveline:
Lack of Energy and Statins
http://www.spacedoc.net/lack_energy_statins.htm

Statins and CoQ10 Deficiency
http://www.spacedoc.net/statins_CoQ10.htm

Heart Rhythm Disturbances and Statins
http://www.spacedoc.net/cardiac_arrhythmias_statins.htm

The last 2 cover cardiomyopathy.

Fran

[John of Dalkey]

Cross post from Vytorin forum.

Thanks for your prompt reply Fran.

For anyone googling "Chest weakness / cardiomyopathy etc etc," here is some hard earned advice.

1. Chest pain from the heart.

"..let me offer one cardinal rule you must never forget: Any adult who suddenly experiences discomfort in the chest must assume it has something to do with the heart. If it turns out to be a false alarm, you've lost nothing. But if it indeed was the heart, you may have saved your life!

... Get your doctor on the phone immediately or go to the emergency room of the nearest hospital."

Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld, Symptoms, p.50, pub 1989.

2. Where a heart attack is described as chest pressure, elephant sitting on your chest, spreading to shoulder and arm, know that doctors include weakness as pain. As well as aches.

THAT is why Dr. Rosenfeld uses the term discomfort. "A heart attack is not always painful."

See Dr. Rosenfeld's excellent book for the complete description. p.50.

3. In my case, an exercise stress test found arrythmia and a Holter 24 hour and nuclear stress test await (aka Thallium Scan / Myocardial Perfusion Imaging). Boy am I looking forward to an exciting diagnosis ...

4. Don't sit there googling "chest weakness" like a dummy. Especially not for five days. You are a candidate to win a Darwin Award and that is a prize you do not want. Clue: You don't get to transmit your genes into the gene pool ;-).

Instead, get thee to an Emergency Room or a doctor pronto.

(Ask me how I know. Or, to quote that Great American, Homer Simpson, "Doh!" ;-) )

5. If you are another born-again middleaged exerciser / teenager -
a) lookout!
b) we are the guys and gals that keep the cardiac departments busy, so be very canny / careful. Really.
c) consider an exercise stress test if indicated; the nurse stopping it because she spotted something nasty is a heck of a lot easier than you finding it the hard way on your run or cycle. You have a 30+% chance of not making it to even find out which particular interesting model of truck just hit you. See 4 above,
d) buy and use a pulse monitor watch to avoid exceeding your target pulse rate. Or two.That way you may avoid keeping the medical industry in new porsches (you won't begrudge them a dime when they save your posterior from the avoidable disaster you just landed it in ;-) ).
e) leave pushing endurance limits to immortal twenty year olds. Remember "Old age, cunning and treachery beat youth, innocence and a bad haircut." Bitter? Moi?

6. Good luck with your "little problem."

[Darrell]

I had a touch of your "little problem" after I stopped Zocor and was taking physical therapy for the related leg muscle problems. The PT wanted me to warm up with five minutes on an exercise bike at the beginning of each session. I noticed the chest problem the first time and slowed down. It was right after dinner, so I sort of wrote it off to that. The next session was not right after a meal, so the chest problem really caught my attention. It didn't take much of a workout. It was trivial exercise compared to things I'd done routinely a few months before. Since then, I've always assumed that all muscles were affected -- the leg was just affected a lot worse. That's one reason I'm still taking Q10 and pacing myself very carefully 15 months later.